Blacks In Britain Scoring Small Political Victories

While the world focused its attention on the political cliffhanger in May that led to Great Britain’s first coalition government in 70 years, the U.K.’s minorities were making significant gains in national representation.

A record turnout of minority voters in the closely contested race doubled the number of black, Asian (in the U.K., “Asian” usually refers to South Asians) and other ethnic-minority MPs in the House of Commons from 14 to 27 (out of 650 members). The government of David Cameron appointed the first Asian woman to a cabinet position, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, who was named minister without portfolio and co-chairman of the Conservative Party. She is also the only member of Britain’s ethnic-minority communities in the coalition cabinet.